March 28, 2013

Lanny Breuer Returns to Covington & Burling in New Leadership Role

Lanny Breuer, one of the longest-serving leaders of the U.S.
Justice Department’s criminal division, is returning to Covington & Burling
to take on a newly created role as vice-chairman of the firm.

Breuer is joining his former firm on Thursday, after nearly
four years as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal
Division. "As I said to my wife, this will be my third first day at the
firm," Breuer said during an interview this week.

In the role of vice chair, Breuer will serve as a liaison for the
firm, its clients and government officials. He'll resume his former
practice in white-collar criminal defense and civil litigation, representing
both companies and individuals. "In that way, those are some things I did
for the division," Breuer said. "I do think there will be a
balance and I'll have to figure it out."

Timothy Hester, chair of the firm's management and executive
committees, said the firm had for some time considered adding someone to work
closely with him on building relationships with clients and
recruiting attorneys.

"As we thought about the opportunity for getting Lanny back,
I felt that one of the really exciting ideas here was that he could work very
closely with me to help reach out to the world and to present the firm to
clients and recruits alike," Hester said. "He showed at the Justice
Department how good he was at this and I think it will help us
significantly."

His new position will keep Breuer busy, since conflicts—based
on his work at the Justice Department—could limit the matters at
Covington he is allowed to handle. He is not barred from appearing or
communicating with other agencies.

"I can't work on anything that was before the Department of
Justice [during my tenure]," Breuer said. "And I can't physically
appear before nor have contact with the department. If it's a new matter, I can
be overtly involved."

Looking back on his time at DOJ, Breuer said the highlights
included the creation of the money-laundering and bank-secrecy unit;
the billions of dollars in fines and penalties recovered from major
banks and oil services companies; the Megaupload copyright case;
and the extradition and prosecution of Mexican cartel leaders.

"I think the Criminal Division has never been greater,"
Breuer said. "And I think it is a fundamentally different place today than
when it was four years ago." The division had become the
"center of criminal law enforcement, both in prosecuting cases and in
policy making."

While at DOJ, Breuer was not without critics.
Congressional Republicans, for instance, hounded him over Operation Fast and
Furious, the federal gun sting in which agents were accused of allowing firearms
to cross unabated from the United States into Mexico. Other critics blasted
Breuer over the lack of high-profile criminal prosecutions of Wall Street
officials and major banks stemming from the financial collapse.

"It is clearly a problem if institutions are very large, but
I think the Criminal Division proved that you can prosecute financial
institutions," Breuer said during the interview. "I think it's
very important for the government and for regulators to hold both companies and
individuals accountable. The division was doing that. That is why we had a
record number of white-collar cases against individuals, and I think
regulators need to do it."

Breuer said he was particularly proud of the $1.25 billion
forfeiture agreement between HSBC Holdings PLC and the Justice
Department. He also pointed to the London Interbank Offered Rate – LIBOR –
scandal, for which DOJ has reached deals with Barclays Bank PLC, UBS A.G.
and The Royal Bank of Scotland. Despite the victories, Breuer said that
challenges persist when prosecuting big banks.

Since Breuer left for the DOJ in 2009, Covington has handled
several high-profile white-collar matters. In 2011, the firm represented
GlaxoSmithKline PLC in a $40.75 million settlement related to the
manufacturing of drugs in the company's Cidra, Puerto Rico, factory. That
same year, Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to an $85 million settlement
with the Federal Reserve Board for allegedly pushing qualified borrowers into
subprime mortgage loans. The bank did not admit guilt.

"We have done extremely well as a firm in the white-collar
practice in the time Lanny has been away, but we see his return as vaulting us
to a new level in terms of sophistication of what we can bring to bear in
support of client matters," Hester said.